The Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona
University is currently working with a consortium of four
rural school districts serving Mexican-American students in
the Yuma area on the border of Mexico to prepare and support
general education teachers in obtaining a Bilingual
Multicultural Education/English as a Second Language
Endorsement. The project provides credit-bearing coursework
leading to a Bilingual Education and/or ESL endorsement that
will have an infusion of special education and technology
modules integrated into all courses. The Title VII federally
funded LEAP program provides Fellows with tuition, books, a
laptop computer, and a printer.
Participating teachers from Gadsden Elementary, Somerton
Elementary, Crane Elementary, and Yuma I Elementary School
Districts, are provided with training in best practice
strategies for working with limited English proficient (LEP)
students and limited English proficient students with
disabilities. Recognizing the importance of the role that
administrators and counselors play in the students'
education, counselors and administrators will be included in
the four Cohort Groups receiving training in the LEAP
project. Over a period of three years, 96 educators (80
teachers and 16 counselors and administrators) in four
Cohort Groups of 24 Fellows each, will complete a Bilingual
Education or ESL Endorsement and collaborate with 12 Mentor
Teachers and 8 Faculty Mentors in co-teaching in K-8
classrooms and in development of ESL inclusion/technology
rich curriculum materials. In addition, LEAP Fellows also
participate in a yearly Trainer of Trainers (TOT) Inservice
Professional Development Program in which 200 additional
educators from the consortium districts are included in
training related to instructional strategies for LEP
students developed by the LEAP program Fellows.
In this way, the Fellows not only be receiving training, but
they are also becoming the future consortium district
trainers in the area of best practice for teaching LEP
students and LEP students with disabilities. The LEAP
project will provide this Bilingual/ESL Endorsement Program
utilizing a Distance Education approach with service
delivery via the Web, Interactive Instructional Television (IITV)
and onsite, so that rural teachers can remain in their local
communities while learning endorsement skills and
competencies to enable them to provide high quality
education to limited English proficient students and limited
English proficient students with disabilities within the
local community.
